A chord progression is the order a song's chords come in: the loop under a verse, the climb into a chorus, the turn that brings a phrase home. This page holds the ones that songs actually use. Every row of the chart below plays, every one downloads as MIDI in the key you choose, and each progression, key, mood and genre has its own page with more.
What a chord progression is
Take a key, say C major, and build a chord on each note of its scale using only the scale's notes. You get seven chords: C, D minor, E minor, F, G, A minor and B diminished. Musicians number them with Roman numerals, I to vii°, upper case for major chords and lower case for minor, so that the same progression can be named in any key: I–V–vi–IV is C–G–Am–F in C and G–D–Em–C in G.
The seven chords of C major, all on the white keys. G is sounding, the V chord: G, B and D.
A progression is a short path through those seven chords (and a few borrowed from outside the key) that ends somewhere it can start again. Most are four chords long, one bar each; a few are three, two or twelve. What makes one sound like a hit and another like a hymn is the order: whether it starts on home or away from it, whether it reaches the dominant V and resolves, and where the minor chords fall.
The same numerals in any key
I–V–vi–IV is C, G, Am and F in C major, and G, D, Em and C in G. The numerals stay; only the letters move. That’s why the chart above can respell every row when you pick a key.
In C
In G
Chord progressions by key
Ten progressions in each key, spelled out, playable and downloadable in that key, with the generator set to it.
Chord progressions by name
- The I–V–vi–IV progressionthe four chords behind most pop.
- The ii–V–I progressionthe jazz cadence.
- The I–IV–V progressionthe three-chord trick.
- The 12-bar bluesI, IV and V over twelve bars.
- The Andalusian cadencei–VII–VI–V, the walking-down minor.
- Major chord progressionsthe whole major family on one page.
- Minor chord progressionsthe whole minor family on one page.
Coming: the circle progression, the royal road, the doo-wop progression, pop, piano and guitar progressions.
Chord progressions by mood and genre
The generator opened on a mood or a genre, with its own progressions.
Coming: dark, emotional, happy, neo-soul, gospel, EDM and house, trap, hip-hop, lo-fi, bossa nova.
Chord progressions by song
The progressions behind Creep, Hotel California, Autumn Leaves, Dust in the Wind, Let It Be, Wonderwall and Hallelujah, as Roman numerals with the key and tempo, playable in any key.
Coming soon.
Make your own
The chord progression generator writes a new progression in any key and mood. Lock the chords you like, generate the rest, download it as MIDI.
Chord names with spaces, up to 16.
To name a chord you can play, use the chord finder; to move a progression to another key, the chord transposer; to find the key of a song, the key finder.
Piano sounds by the Salamander Grand Piano (Alexander Holm), CC BY 3.0.
